Why Teach at Fractal University?

learn by teaching, create an intellectual community, earn $$$

Deciding to teach Building a Village: How to Live Near Your Friends is the best decision I’ve made this year. If you’re based in New York City, you might like teaching at Fractal University too. Here are some reasons to teach here:

1. You have the best students in the world

Fractal University does not provide students with any credentials. There are no grades. Your students will apply to take your class because they genuinely want to be there.

This has powerful consequences.

For example: there’s a different feel to doing circuit problems in Andrew’s Foundations of Computing class than in a college course. The latter is a weeder course, and the students are stressed. In Andrew’s class, the underlying energy of tackling hard problems is light and playful. We’re here to learn and have fun.

When your students are having fun, teaching them is fun too.

Andrew smiling as he teaches us the computing stack

2. The best way to learn is to teach

What's your current obsession? LLMs? Community-building? Writing short fiction? Whatever it is, you'll learn the subject better by teaching it.

Andrew had been gradually self-studying From NAND to Tetris. When he decided to teach a class on the subject, he could no longer dilly-dally. He had to make sure he worked a few weeks ahead of the assigned work. And he needed to understand the material deeply so he could help his students. His self-assessed understanding of the material went from a 3 out of 10 before teaching, to a 9 out of 10.

What subject do you want a 9 out of 10 understanding of? Consider teaching a course on it :)

Mari and Morgan presenting their work

3. You’ll make new friends who share your niche interests

My friend Daniel Golliher spent two years self-studying the New York City government. He’d often meet people who loved to chat about “politics.” But they had little concrete knowledge about how the government works.

He started teaching a class on the history and governance of New York City, The Foundations of New York. Some of his students had a passion for government, and some even worked for the government. But prior to the class, they had felt deeply intellectually lost. Like Daniel himself, they lacked a community of practice around them. Now, several of his students have become his closest friends and collaborators.

If you want to make friends who share your niche interests, teach about your niche subject!

Daniel’s students race to draw a map of the NYC government the quickest

4. You can earn $1000+

At Fractal University, you get paid to follow your curiosity.

All teachers set their own prices. I chose to offer my class, Building a Village: How to Live Near Your Friends for a sliding scale fee from $30 to $300. The cumulative class tuition was $1405. I then paid a 20% fee to my friend for letting me teach the class from his basement. So my total income from the class was $1124.

I made over $1000…for work that doesn’t feel like work to me.

class discussion on beanbags

Daniel has taught 7 cohorts of Foundations of New York. He also charges based on sliding scale donations. In his first cohort he made $545. His class grew more popular, and his waitlist grew. His students voluntarily paid higher donations. In his 7th cohort, Daniel made $7850.

I expect that if I continue iterating on my course, my students will naturally pay more tuition over time. Teaching might become a significant source of income for me.

You too can:

1. Have amazing, engaged students,

2. Learn about a subject you’re interested in, and

3. Create a community for your niche interest, all while you

4. Earn thousands

We are planning Spring Semester now. Apply to teach if you dare 😉